Finn Russell passed fit for Calcutta Cup clash but Darcy Graham misses out for Scotland against England

Scotland have been given a huge Calcutta Cup fitness boost with Finn Russell cleared to start against England.

The fly half had been a doubt for the trip to Allianz Stadium, Twickenham as he progressed through return to play protocols after a nasty clash of heads with teammate Darcy Graham against Ireland in round two.

But while Graham is absent from the matchday 23, Russell is passed fit to feature and starts again at fly half, with Tom Jordan again at inside centre to offer extra playmaking potential.

Prop Pierre Schoeman and flanker Jamie Ritchie are reinstated to the starting side having begun on the bench against Ireland, while Kyle Rowe is the beneficiary of Graham’s misfortune.

Russell again co-captains alongside Rory Darge as Scotland look to continue their recent dominance of this fixture.

“They’ve both been training really well, they’ve gone through the right protocols and they’ve passed every stage,” head coach Gregor Townsend told Scottish Rugby. “Finn, we felt, was symptom-free much earlier and obviously didn’t have as much of a head knock as Darcy did.

“Darcy is progressing really well. He’s had no symptoms now for a few days. He’s on to the next stage of his training but we just felt this week was too early to do full contact so we’re giving him that extra week to recover.”

England have won just one of the last seven meetings between the two teams, with Scotland unbeaten in that period when Russell has played.

Head coach Townsend again opts for a six forwards to two backs bench split, with scrum half Jamie Dobie covering the wing having been used there for 60 minutes against Ireland after Graham’s withdrawal.

Scotland XV to face England (4.45pm GMT, Saturday 22 February): 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Dave Cherry, 3 Zander Fagerson; 4 Jonny Gray, 5 Grant Gilchrist; 6 Jamie Ritchie, 7 Rory Darge (co-capt.), 8 Jack Dempsey; 9 Ben White, 10 Finn Russell (co-capt.); 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 12 Tom Jordan, 13 Huw Jones, 14 Kyle Rowe; 15 Blair Kinghorn.

Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Gregor Brown, 21 Matt Fagerson; 22 Jamie Dobie, 23 Stafford McDowall.